Aero Team Online QuestChat

October 18, 2001

Featuring: The Wright Brothers

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 0 - 12:18:27 ]
Please join us Thursday, October 18, for a chat with Orville and Wilbur Wright about the process they used to design airplanes. Please be sure to prepare for the event by exploring http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/projects/aero/centennial/. This will ensure that your questions are appropriate to the experts' field.

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 2 - 12:19:48 ]
You may go ahead and place questions in the chatroom now to be answered during the webchat. Please don't post test messages or repeats -- though you may not see your question, it is in the chatroom. Again, PLEASE do not repeat your questions. Enjoy the chat :-)

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 3 - 11:51:50 ]
Welcome to our early arriving participants! Our chat with Orville and Wilbur Wright will begin in about 10 minutes! Have your questions ready :-)

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 4 - 12:00:46 ]
We are ready to begin our chat!! Welcome Orville & Wilbur!

[ WilburWright - 5 - 12:01:14 ]
Hi there, This is Wilbur Wright, How are you brother Orville?

[ Orville - 6 - 12:01:16 ]
Hello Wilbur. It's nice to be here today

[ WilburWright - 12 - 12:04:13 ]
RE: [Nina] What are the gliders and planes made of?
Nina, The early gliders were made of wood and thin fabric, usually cotton, stretched over a wing-like light wood frame.

[ WilburWright - 13 - 12:06:13 ]
RE: [Maria]How long did it take to build each flyer & what was the cost?
Maria, The cost of each early glider and then the 1903 Wright Flyer was much much less than you might expect. Each early glider cost approximately $150 to $200 to build. The famous 1903 Wright Flyer cost about $1,700 to build.

[ Orville - 16 - 12:07:14 ]
RE: [Daniel] Leonardo Da Vinci invented an aircraft similiar to the one flown by the Wright Brothers. Is it possible that they have copied or used his idea to develop and bring to life the idea of an object to carry people through the air?
Daniel, DA Vinci had the right idea, but he never made it work. He didn't have an engine in his time. Both DA Vinci and ourselves copied a lot from birds. They are really the first flyers.

[ WilburWright - 17 - 12:09:32 ]
RE: [Daniel] Leonardo DA Vinci invented an aircraft similiar to the one flown by the Wright Brothers. Is it possible that they have copied or used his idea to develop and bring to life the idea of an object to carry people through the air?
Daniel, Yes, Leonardo DA Vinci did design (but apparently never actually built) a form of a glider commonly called an ornithopter. It was (as best as we can tell) a human powered glider that flapped its wings by human leg power. It was a sort of bat like design and was noted by both my brother Orville and myself, but we didn't use his designs in our work.

[ Orville - 18 - 12:09:52 ]
RE: [Jason] What kinds of research did you do?
Jason, We owned a bicycle shop. I also took a shot at printing a newspaper, for awhile.

[ Orville - 20 - 12:11:44 ]
RE: [Bill] Did some people think you all were crazy?
Some people still think we're crazy still. But yes, there was a lot of skepticism about a workable flying machine.

[ WilburWright - 21 - 12:12:18 ]
RE: [Jason] What kinds of research did you do?
Jason, yes, we did lots of research, starting by reading, reading and more reading. We had a good library in our father's (Bishop Milton Wright) library. Then we wrote to the Smithsonian Museum for more information. Then we watched the buzzards flying near Dayton, Ohio. Then we designed our first glider (more of a kite really, in 1899. Later on we designed and used a homemade wind tunnel to test all of our wing designs. That was the real breakthrough for us.

[ Orville - 22 - 12:12:43 ]
RE: [Jack] Did either of you birdwatch as kids?
We watched birds a lot. We saw how they changed the shape of their wings for control.

[ WilburWright - 25 - 12:14:09 ]
RE: [Bill] Did some people think you all were crazy?
Bill, yes, lots of people did not believe that we could fly or actually invented a real flying machine. In fact, some people as late as 1909 (six years after we had successfully flown the 1903 Flyer) still did not believe we had done it.

[ WilburWright - 26 - 12:15:13 ]
RE: [Jack] Did either of you birdwatch as kids?
Jack, We watched the buzzards in our early research in Dayton, Ohio. It convinced us that a successful design could be found.

[ WilburWright - 27 - 12:15:50 ]
RE: [Jack] Did either of you birdwatch as kids?
Bye the way, Jack, those buzzards can still be seen circling over parks in the Dayton, Ohio area.

[ Orville - 28 - 12:15:57 ]
RE: [Tina] What kept you going when failure ocurred?
We supported each other. We also believed flying could be done, but it was just like a puzzle which we needed to keep working at. We also realized we could learn from our failures.

[ WilburWright - 31 - 12:17:45 ]
RE: [Tina] What kept you going when failure ocurred?
Tina, We had lots of encouragement from each other, and we shared ideas and inspiration from each other. Our sister was also a constant source of encouragement. Our mother (not our father) was actually the person who taught us both how to use woodworking tools. She came from a long line of coach builders from Europe.

[ Orville - 32 - 12:18:18 ]
RE: [Whitney] Did either of you go to school tolearn about engineering or flight?
Whitney, we did not go to engineering school. But as my brother pointed out, we came from a very learned family that valued studying and learning very much. We also learned from a lot of people that were highly educated.

[ Orville - 33 - 12:19:35 ]
RE: [Krissy] What was the most exciting day in your career?
Krissy, the most exciting day for me was of course, December 17, 1903, the day we first flew.

[ WilburWright - 34 - 12:19:44 ]
RE: [Whitney] Did either of you go to school tolearn about engineering or flight?
Whitney, Neither of us went to an actual engineering school. We were well read, good at mathematics, (even through higher mathematics and calculus) and also got a lot of practical experience running our own bicycle shop and then actually making our own bicycles to sell.

[ WilburWright - 37 - 12:21:40 ]
RE: [Krissy] What was the most exciting day in your career?
Krissy, The most exciting day in my life was December 17, 1903 at 10:35 in the morning when my brother flew successfully for the first time. I got to fly next and it was just thrilling to fly so far. We both flew twice each that first day for a total of four successful flights.

[ Orville - 38 - 12:22:41 ]
RE: [Nick] How was lift discovered?
Nick, Lift has been discovered in many different ways by many different people down through history. Daniel Bernoulli was one of the people to realize the effect that low pressure results from air blowing over a surface. During our experiments my brother and I used a lot of reference tables from many sources that predicted the amount of lift created by a wing.

[ WilburWright - 39 - 12:23:48 ]
RE: [Nick] How was lift discovered?
Nick, Probably the credit as to who actually discovered lift would go to one of the pioneers in flight that came before us. For example, Otto Lilienthal, a German who lived just outside Berlin was gliding thousands of times before we actually started gliding.

[ WilburWright - 42 - 12:25:37 ]
RE: [Vickie] What did your family friends and coworkers think of your ideas?
Vickie, Our family was very supportive, including our father. He wanted us to be worthwhile individuals and to have a meaningful goal in life. Katharine (our sister was also very helpful. Sometimes she helped to run the bicycle shop while we were in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, experimenting.

[ Orville - 43 - 12:25:58 ]
RE: [Vickie] What did your family friends and coworkers think of your ideas?
Vickie, Because we created deliberate experiments starting with kites and gliders, and slowly built up to making an airplane, I don't think any of our friends and associates thought we wouldn't succeed. If we had tried flying in the first thing we built, then I think they would have been more skeptical.

[ WilburWright - 44 - 12:28:02 ]
RE: [Nick] Where did you get the original idea for flying & what kind of machine it might take?
We got the original idea for flying from magazine articles we read and news of Otto Lilienthal experiments in Germany. We got early design ideas from the Smithsonian, and suggestions from an engineer friend named Octave Chanute. However, our design was significantly different from any that had gone before. This was particularly true as to our wing warping design ideas.

[ Orville - 45 - 12:28:04 ]
RE: [Nick] Where did you get the original idea for flying & what kind of machine it might take?
Nick, Watching the flight of birds and the work of Lilienthal in Germany are probably the most influential in how we came up with our machine.

[ WilburWright - 46 - 12:29:46 ]
RE: [Austin] What made you so interested in flying?
Austin, We were interested in flying from an early age. Our father (Bishop Milton Wright) brought home a sort of wind-up rubber-band toy that had us fascinated for weeks and weeks. We even tried to build our own bigger and better copies of it to play with.

[ Orville - 47 - 12:30:09 ]
RE: [Austin] What made you so interested in flying?
Austin, It was a challenge that no one had done before. We were more interested in seeing if it could be done, than the possible uses for it. Turning it into a business was an idea that came to us long after we had started our experiments.

[ WilburWright - 49 - 12:32:27 ]
RE: [Dakota] What was learned from specific flight tests?
Dakota, We learned design ideas and corrections from each flight. For example, in some of our early gliding experiments we discovered what today we call a "stall" and Orville came up with a design correction to prevent it. We called them "well digging" from the tendency of the glider to sort of try to dig a well tail first. He drank too much coffee one night, stayed up all night thinking and had it all figured out in the morning. What a genius you are, Orv.

[ Orville - 52 - 12:34:24 ]
RE: [Dakota] What was learned from specific flight tests?
Dakota, we learned how the airplane actually performed from the flight tests. This is important if you're going to fly. However, we also recognized that we needed to compare how the airplane flew to how we thought it was supposed to fly. That way, we could compare our previous experiments and work to decide if we were doing the right thing. That also meant we took very careful notes so that we could go back over our work and flight tests later on. We continually built on that principle, and that's how you invent something as complicated as an airplane.

[ WilburWright - 53 - 12:35:11 ]
RE: [Ann] What safety procedures were followed? Did anyone ever get hurt?
Ann, we did not wear a seat belt, but probably should have. One time my brother, Orville, had a sort of crash landing in the glider while we were experimenting and got a bit banged up; he was okay the next day. We never had any serious injuries in our experiments. Orville did have a serious accident in 1908 at Fort Myer (near Washington, D.C.) when he was demonstrating the aircraft to the government, for the first time.

[ WilburWright - 54 - 12:37:14 ]
RE: [Todd] How fast were the engines/motors you used -- mph & hp?
Todd, Our first engine was designed by us and built by our mechanic, Charlie Taylor. It had (at most) about 12 horsepower. It was able to move us forward at about 25 knots (not very fast but fast enough to fly for the first time).

[ Orville - 55 - 12:37:15 ]
RE: [Ann] What safety procedures were followed? Did anyone ever get hurt?
Ann, We were very concerned about crashing, because that is how Otto Lilienthal died. We worked very hard to make sure the pilot could maintain control of the airplane at all times. Safety was also the reason we conducted our first flights at Kittyhawk, so that there was plenty of soft sand to land on.

[ WilburWright - 57 - 12:39:53 ]
RE: [Laurie] How were the gliders and flyers steered?
Laurie, You get the prize for a really good question. Directional control was extremely important. Before our design nobody had discovered the secret of how to actually turn the aircraft. We did it by a sort of wing warping design that warped one wing downward at the back, while the other wing warped upward at the back. This caused different pressures on the two wings as the air flowed over it and served to turn the plane. We also developed an effective rudder to include in our design.

[ Orville - 58 - 12:40:36 ]
RE: [Laurie] How were the gliders and flyers steered?
Laurie, We steered our airplanes by using a combination of the rudder and wing warping. The rudder acted very similar to a rudder on a boat. However, the wing warping allowed us to bank the airplane into the direction of the turn. With the proper combination of rudder and wing warping, we were able to created a more 'coordinated' turn which is how airplanes are flown today.

[ WilburWright - 60 - 12:42:05 ]
RE: [Georjean] Did many people come to watch?
Georjean, Another good question. Not too many people watched us at the beginning. Then, when we experimented outside Dayton (after 1903), lots of people came out on a trolley line to watch us fly.

[ WilburWright - 62 - 12:43:47 ]
RE: [Denisha] did you make paper airplanes?
Denisha, Yes, we made lots and lots of paper airplanes. Orville and I flew and built kites, as well, as youngsters. In fact, our kites were so good that we sold them to other kids to make a little money.

[ Orville - 63 - 12:43:56 ]
RE: [Georjean] Did many people come to watch?
Georjean, During our first flight at Kittyhawk, we were in a real remote location, so not many people saw us fly. By the time we were flying a few years later in Dayton, lots of people came out. Imagine, you've never seen anything like an airplane before, and one day, my brother or I fly past your house! You would want to go see what we were up to, and a lot of people did.

[ Orville - 65 - 12:47:14 ]
RE: [Daniel] Were there a lot of medical personel at the place of the famous flight? Were cameras really that developed to take such accurate pictures of the flight like the one that represents the link?
Daniel, We did not have any support personnel like who you have described. We did enlist help from the men who manned the life guard station at Kittyhawk, to help us prepare and move the airplane. One of them also snapped the picture of the first flight with my camera. He did a very fine job, especially considering that he probably had not used a camera before.

[ WilburWright - 66 - 12:47:28 ]
RE: [Daniel] Were there a lot of medical personel at the place of the famous flight? Were cameras really that developed to take such accurate pictures of the flight like the one that represents the link?
Daniel, We had no medical personel at the famous December 17, 1903, flight other than some of the Coast Guard men from the Coast Guard station about a mile away. They had some medical training, as I recall. They rescued people from sinking ships along the North Carolina shore. (Their motto was "You must go to help, you don't necessarily have to come back.") Orville had a hobby of photography and it is because of his hobby and his interest in photographing everything that we have that first famous photograph and many others today.

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 70 - 12:50:05 ]
Great questions everyone! We have about 10 minutes left to chat.

[ WilburWright - 71 - 12:50:51 ]
RE: [Daniel] Were there a lot of medical personel at the place of the famous flight? Were cameras really that developed to take such accurate pictures of the flight like the one that represents the link?
By the way Daniel, the state of photography was advancing rapidly in those days. In 1909, when we demonstrated the Flyer to the U.S. government for the second time, we painted the airplane silver all over to make its design as impossible to see as possible. Lots of people were trying to steal our ideas, One of them was Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone. We call the 1909 silver-painted aircraft the world's first attempt to build a truly "stealthy" aircraft.

[ Orville - 72 - 12:52:04 ]
RE: [Whitney] What was your biggest faILURE?
Whitney, We had a lot of failures. Fortunately, I am hard pressed to choose one that really stopped us from achieving our goals, or causing what you would call a "missed opportunity".

[ WilburWright - 73 - 12:52:13 ]
RE: [Whitney] What was your biggest failure?
Whitney, Our biggest failure was in 1908 when a wire came loose and a propeller broke during a flight. Orville was badly injured and his passenger, a Lieutenant Selfridge, was killed.

[ WilburWright - 74 - 12:53:14 ]
RE: [Daniel] How old were you when you made the first flight?
Daniel, I was 36 at the time of our first historic flight

[ Orville - 76 - 12:54:13 ]
RE: [WilburWright] Daniel, I was 36 at the time of our first historic flight
I think I must have been 32 at the time.

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 77 - 12:55:11 ]
We don't have much time left for today's webchat. I would like to introduce you all to our Wright Brothers. Wilbur is played by Steve Shackelford & Orville is played by Craig Hange. Both are experts on the Wright Brothers -- their history and accomplishments. You can read more about them.

[ WilburWright - 78 - 12:55:16 ]
RE: [Jade] Did anyone inspire either of you?
Jade, I got most of my inspiration from reading about earlier aviation pioneers, like the Frenchman Clement Ader and the English engineer Pilcher. Also, a major source of inspiration was, of course, Otto Lilienthal In addition, our engineer friend, Octave Chanute was always encouraging us by letter and by his visits to our experiments at Kitty Hawk.

[ Orville - 79 - 12:55:42 ]
RE: [Joyce] In your opinion, why did it take so long from Leonardo DaVinci's sketches on 'flying machines' until the Wright Brothers' accomplishment of the goal?
Joyce, The airplane had to wait on the internal combustion engine. Steam engines were too heavy to work in a flying machine.

[ Orville - 82 - 12:59:05 ]
RE: [Robert] What did each of you do? Did yuo each have certain tasks you were responsibel for?
Robert, My brother and I did a lot of the same work. We didn't divide up responsibilities a lot when we worked on the airplanes. Later on, Wilbur did much of the 'marketing' while I continued technical work, but that didn't occur until later on. Wilbur, as the eldest, did do most of the speaking and correspondences.

[ WilburWright - 83 - 12:59:06 ]
RE: [Robert] What did each of you do? Did yuo each have certain tasks you were responsibel for?
Robert, Another good question. Many historians believe that I was a bit more mechanical that my brother, and Orville just excelled at figuring out difficult engineering questions. Both of us, however did a little of everything. Both of us were good in the machine shop making things, and both of us were a constant source of discussion and ideas for each other.

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 85 - 12:59:16 ]
We have so many questions in the chatroom! We will NOT be able to get to them all today, but we will have the Wright Brothers back to chat with you again :-)

[ Orville - 86 - 13:00:40 ]
RE: [Chris] Was it OK to fail and try again? What did you learn from your willingness to fail?
Chris, There is frequently more to be learned from failure as there is from success. Just don't try to convince your teachers of that when they grade your tests.

[ WilburWright - 87 - 13:00:46 ]
RE: [Chris] Was it OK to fail and try again? What did you learn from your willingness to fail?
Chris, we all learn from our failures. In fact, if something does not work and we fix it, we (by definition) have learned something. On the other hand, if everything worked perfectly every time, we'd all probably not learn nearly as quickly. I made lots of mistakes, however, and we steadily learned to correct each successive design.

[ WilburWright - 88 - 13:02:03 ]
RE: [Andre] what would you say if you could see the wind tunnels at NASA today?
Wow!!!, I would be completely overwhelmed at the immense size of them. The entire 40 foot, 4 inch wing span of the 1903 Wright Flyer would easily fin in their wind tunnel.

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 89 - 13:03:15 ]
As you leave the chatroom today, please take a moment to fill out our online survey to let us know what you thought about this chat & our new website re-design. THANKS!!

[ WilburWright - 90 - 13:03:47 ]
RE: [Daniel] One last question, what was your funeral like????
Daniel, my funeral was in 1912. It was a simple ceremony and all the trolley cars and automobiles and all activity stopped for three minutes in Dayton, Ohio, in remembrance of me at the time of my funeral.

[ Orville - 91 - 13:04:23 ]
RE: [Andre] what would you say if you could see the wind tunnels at NASA today?
Andre, I think the wind tunnels are important to developing future airplanes, and I hope people like Mr. Hange continue to have the support of the citizens of the United States to keep the research and experiments going.. It has been a pleasure chatting with all of you. Good seeing you again, brother Wilbur! I would also like to thank our chat host Lori. Take care.

[ WilburWright - 92 - 13:04:35 ]
Well, brother Orville, this has been fun to do this one more time together. Good-bye everyone, until the next time.

[ WilburWright - 93 - 13:05:44 ]
Thanks for the chat Orv and Lori, bye for now.

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 94 - 13:06:20 ]
I want to thank all of our participants today and our Wright Brothers experts Steve and Craig!! What a great webchat!! Join us next week for our webcast from the Vertical Motion Simulator. Have a wonderful day everyone :-)